(Closed) All Day Sickness – Please Help!

So I am 6.5 weeks pregnant with my first. I have “morning” sickness which lasts all day, from when I wake up to when I fall asleep. I haven’t thrown up once, but I feel awful and very close to vomiting every time 🙁

I work 4 days a week, and am really struggling but cannot afford to be having much time off. I am so tired as I cannot eat as pretty much everything makes me want to puke. The only thing I can handle is toast with butter and raspberry jam, which to me is better than nothing. I drink a fair bit of water and some lemonade as that calms my tummy a bit.

I’ve heard Vitamin B6 can help, can anyone suggest anything or confirm that B6 does help?

@Mrs.and.Mum.to.be: I don’t have any experience with B6, but I found that keeping something in my stomach…even if it was just dry toast with a little peanut butter, or crackers…helped keep the nausea at bay some. Also sucking on peppermints, the hard ones, like Starlights, helped me a ton.

I am also in the middle of week 7 and am having constant morning sickness without ever vomiting. Yours sounds a little more severe than mine as I can generally eat 75% of the food I was eating before, but I’m never sure how I’ll feel 30 minutes later. But all day, every day, for the last 3 weeks it’s been constant nausea (plus fatique and dizziness). I’ve found that saltines help me a lot and that something I seem to be able to get down no matter what is cut apples with some natural peanut butter. I’ve also had a ton of luck with wheat English muffins with butter.

I think it’s worth a trip to your doctor. I’ve heard B6 works, and that’s what my doc recommended for me, but my morning sickness went away before I had to start taking it.

There are prescription meds on the market for morning sickness (and yes, that’s an inaccurate nomenclature) and your doc can also help you get disability if you need it. The other thing is, although it’s quite rare, you want your doctor to know that you’re having trouble in case it gets so bad that they need to admit you to the hospital for an IV (but again–that’s rare). Don’t worry about your diet being healthy or anything like that–eat whatever you can, whenever you can. The baby is tiny at this stage and it’ll take everything that it needs from your body if you’re having trouble keeping food down. I went a good two weeks eating practically nothing but popsicles and gum. My doctor didn’t seem concerned.

Otherwise, there are some home remedies that might alleviate symptoms, as other PP mentioned: try not to allow yourself to run on empty (keep crackers at your nightstand and eat them when you wake up in the middle of the night and before you get up in the morning), eat simple foods that you’d normally turn to with stomach upset (dry toast, rice, that sort of thing), try taking your prenatal vitamin before bed instead of in the morning. I found popsicles were really helpful (albeit not exactly healthy, but screw that when you’re hugging the toilet). And get rest whenever you can.

@Mrs.and.Mum.to.be: It sucks so much, I totally feel your pain. I’m 11.5 weeks and I’ve been feeling that way (plus vomiting) since 4 weeks… I’m so over it! I’m trying B6 but I’m not sure yet if it’s helping (it’s only been 3-4 days). The thing I’ve noticed that helps me the most is getting ridiculous amounts of sleep. 10 hrs+ if possible. Aside from that, I haven’t found a great solution. Sometimes sour things help… lemonade, lemon heads, lemonade Edy’s popsicles. In the beginning, I thought ginger Altoids were helping, but I ate way too many of them and now can’t stand anything ginger (if you want to try them, pm me and I’ll send some to you… I have a whole case left, since that was the only way I could order them). Preggo pop drops also helped me in the beginning. Eating something before getting out of bed and then every 30-60 minutes also helps. If I go too long without eating, I will be throwing up for sure.

I was so desperate, I tried a prescription of Zofran, but it didn’t work for me. It might be worth a try if you start throwing up a lot.

I don’t know what to tell you about work… I work 4 days per week as well (42 hrs total) and I’ve been majorly struggling. I usually throw up several times a day while at work. 🙁 I’ve asked to come in a little late on days when I don’t have morning appointments/meetings so that I can get more sleep and my boss has been letting me do that. It’s so hard having responsibilities and deadlines, yet feel like you can’t think about anything but vomiting. 🙁 I don’t have answers, just sympathy.

I lost 26lbs in the beginning of my pregnancy due to all day sickness. At 37 weeks I still throw up a couple times per week. I also have had major food aversions to pretty much everything. It’s been easily the worst part of this experience. I feel for you and wish I could tell you something that worked for me, but nothing did.

I totally feel your pain. I had morning sickness from 6w to 19w – it was so bad that I had to get IV fluids twice and I was on Zofran 3 times a day. I also took Vitamin B6 and unisom at night. I still get a little pukey from time to time so I sometimes take the B6 and unisom at night.

I agree with many of the things PP have said – don’t allow yourself to have an empty stomach, lemon-flavored candies and drinks helped, ginger helped to a degree. I am a visiting nurse and kept a plastic bag lined bucket in my car to help me between patients!

Honestly, though – speak to your doc or midwife about how you’re feeling. I thought I could tough it out and I ended up in the ER. My midwives told me I wasn’t doing any good for my babies by being dehydrated and malnourished – and they gave me the Zofran. I felt bad at first, but you know what? I was able to eat and drink again and my boys are thriving!

*Note – when I was on the Zofran, I had WICKED constipation… unfortunately, that’s a side effect for some – but I was willing to deal with the constipation more than I was willing to deal with nausea and vomiting all the time! Good luck!

The B6 helped me and I also had watermelon and coke on hand at all times. Ususally I’d get up and eat a piece of watermelon right away to prevent being over the toilet. I would say I was sick until about 15 weeks. Good luck

I am about 10 weeks in and I get sick (no vomiting) when I have not eaten. Eat what you can keep down, do not force yourself to eat anything that you don’t want. Take your prenatal vitamins if you can.

I don’t know much about B6, but one thing that really helped me were ice cream frappes. They coated my stomach and didn’t require me to actually eat something when I couldn’t. Also I kept hard candies on me at all time. Sorry you’re so sick 🙁

Ditto others on eat what you can. Having an empty stomach just keeps the cycle going and if you aren’t actually throwing up you should attempt to eat something. I had hyperemesis ( all day, all night throwing up for prolonged periods of time, ended up needing round the clock IV and meds pumped into me) and it was hell. I don’t know how much your Dr. will do with you just being sick to your stomach, but not actual vomitting.

I had home health care and my nurse just worked with hyperemesis patients and she would always bring me a huge Slurpee, I have no idea what about it worked but I could drink those no problems even when I couldn’t keep down water. Smelling lemon scented things can help- I had lemon candles going, sucked on lemon candies and used lemon bath products. Ginger snap cookies are good as well or ginger candies if you can handle the taste. Mainly just make sure you drink and eat small amounts whenever you can. Avoiding it because you think you may get sick can lead to dehydration which causes a whole host of other problems.

Try keeping a few saltine crackers at your bedside. When you wake in the morning, eat them before you get out of bed. I also suggest a visit to your doctor, this is something they need to be aware of and will want to try to improve since you can’t eat very well.

I would talk to your doctor about medications that can help with your sickness. I always say that if the morning sickness is bad enough to keep you from functioning in your normal routine, it’s bad enough to be on medication.

Some doctors reccomend a combo of B6 and an antihistamine like Unisom; others prefer drugs like Zofran or Phenergan. Personally, I took Zoran with both my pregnancies and B6/Unisom with my last, and both helped a ton.